Don Rickles

Don Rickles
Rickles in 1973
Birth name	Donald Jay Rickles
Born	(1926-05-08)May 8, 1926 Queens, New York City, U.S.
Died	April 6, 2017(2017-04-06) (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
Medium	Stand-up film television books
Years active	1950–2017
Genres	Observational comedy insult comedy black comedy cringe comedy shock humor satire
Subject(s)	American culture racism self-deprecation everyday life religion current events
Spouse	Barbara Sklar ​ (m. 1965)​
Children	2, including Larry
Website	donrickles.com
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service / branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1944–1946
Rank	Seaman first class
Battles / wars	World War II Pacific War

Donald Jay Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Enter Laughing (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), and Casino (1995). From 1976 to 1978, Rickles had a two-season starring role in the NBC television sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey, having previously starred in two eponymous half-hour programs, an ABC variety series titled The Don Rickles Show (1968) and a CBS sitcom identically titled The Don Rickles Show (1972).

A veteran headline performer at Las Vegas hotel-casinos and peripheral member of the Rat Pack via friendship with Frank Sinatra,^[1] Rickles received widespread exposure as a frequent guest on talk and variety shows, including The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and The Late Show with David Letterman, and voiced Mr. Potato Head in the first four films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–2019). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2006 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project. In 2014, he was honored by fellow comedians at the Apollo Theater, which was taped and released on Spike TV, entitled Don Rickles: One Night Only.